n s. v. FEB. 24, 19.2.] NOTES AND QUERIES.
147
RELIC BUREAU SUGGESTED. Tn Cham-
bers s Journal for last month a suggestion
is made to form a relic bureau for the registra-
tion of family and other relics of people of
note. It is formulated in an article entitled
- Relics of the Great Departed.' The idea is to
provide a centre where people might register uch relics, which would be duly indexed and classified under various headings, such as (1) Royalty. (2) Parliamentary, (3) Eccle- siastical, (4) Army. (5) Navy, &c. By this means people interested in any par- ticular person or department of life would be able to communicate with the respective owners of such relics, and possibly have an opportunity afforded them of inspecting the same. Such a scheme would, I venture to think, open out a wide field of interest and research, and prove of considerable value to the student and biographer. Taking my own case as an example, we have in our family various interesting relics of cele- brated people, namely, Lord Byron, Hannah More, William Cowper, Kirke White, &c., in the form of autograph letters, locks of hair, miniatures, and personal belongings ; and I may say that we should be only too pleased to correspond with those interested in them or to offer them for inspection.
It has struck me that the best, if not the
only means of establishing a Relic Bureau
would be by connecting it with some
literary periodical, and I do not know of
any paper so suitable in this respect as
- N. & Q.' May I therefore respectfully
suggest to you the idea of establishing a " Relic Register " in connexion with your
pap
I may say that the idea originated
in a letter I wrote to Mr. Cochrane of Cham-
bers' s Journal anent an article entitled 'A
Memory of Olney,' appearing in that maga-
zine last year. Mr. Cochrane was much
interested in the idea hence the article
to which I have already referred.
I should esteem it a great favour if you could find space for this letter in your paper, even if the idea of associating the scheme with ' N. & Q.' does not find favour, as its publication might lead to suggestions for the establishment of a Relic Bureau.
CUTHBERT BECHER PIGOT. Temuka, College Road, Norwich.
INSCRIPTIONS IN CHURCHES AND CHURCH- YARDS. (See 11 S. ii. 389, 453, 492, 537; iii. 57.) Somewhat late in the day, I fear, my attention has been called to the sug- gestion of L. M. R. (at the last reference) that a general registry should be established for transcripts of monumental inscriptions.
I should like to be permitted to say that
the Society of Genealogists has, among the
objects for which it was founded, the forma-
tion and maintenance of a safe depository
of this kind. I may add that the Society
has appointed a Monumental Inscriptions
Sub-Committee, which is specially interested
in this subject. On behalf of the Society
I cordially invite all readers who have
monumental inscription transcripts to send
them in, with the assurance that they will
be carefully indexed and filed. All com-
munications should be addressed to the
Hon. Secretary, Society of Genealogists,
227, Strand, W.C.
F. M. R. HOLWORTHY, F.S.G.
Hon. Sec. M.I. Sub -Committee.
WE must request correspondents desiring in-
formation on family matters of only private interest
to affix their names and addresses to their queries,
in order that answers may be sent to them direct.
' BALLAD OF LORD BATEMAN ' : ITS AUTHOR- SHIP. A discussion respecting this ballad took place in The Athenaeum in 1888, and also at 7 S. vi., vii., and xi. The authorship was left undecided, being variously attributed to Cruikshank, Thackeray, and Dickens. Can it be stated whether any further infor- mation on this point has since come to light ? It is certain, however, that whoever was responsible for the ballad in its present f orm, it was based upon a much older one. In Legendary Ballads of England and Scot-
land.' by
entitled
John
Lord
S. Roberts, there is
Beichan,' in which
one
the
principal incidents of the narrative, as well
as many of the phrases and expressions, are
identical with the former ballad. Lord
Beichan, according to the authority men-
tioned,
" is supposed to have been no less a personage than the father of Thomas a Becket, and the ballad is assumed to be a tolerably accurate account of his captivity and marriage." How far back can this ballad of 'Lord Beichan ' be traced ? G. H. W.
DEVON MEMORIALS OF THE REVOLUTION OF 1688-90. In the centre of Newton Abbot, Devon, just below St. Leonard's Tower, stands a stone, the remains of the old market cross, from which was read, on 5 Nov., 1688, the Declaration of William of Orange after his landing at Torbay. The inscription is as follows :
" The first Declaration of William III., Prince of Orange, the glorious defender of the Protestant'
